Northwest Indian War

The Northwest Indian War (1785-1795) was a war between the United States and a confederacy of British-supported Native American tribes for control of the Northwest Territory, which had officially been ceded to the USA by Britain at the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783. In 1787, the Northwest Territory was populated by 45,000 Native Americans and 2,000 French settlers, and the British maintained illegal forts in the region so that they could supply the natives against their white American enemies. The untrained US Army militiamen suffered a series of major defeats in 1790 and 1791, and 1,000 soldiers and militiamen were killed by the natives during this conflict. However, President George Washington sent the war hero "Mad" Anthony Wayne to organize and train a proper fighting force to fight against the natives, and Wayne led the Legion of the United States into the Indian lands and decisively defeated them at Fallen Timbers in 1794. In 1795, the Native Americans signed the Treaty of Greenville with the USA, ceding extensive amounts of land to the Americans, and the British abandoned their forts in the region. British-supported Native American violence would continue, however, leading to the War of 1812 just seventeen years later.